Day 6: Waning Gibbous in Libra

Sacred Rose

Dear Blossoming Soul,

“I’m sorry.”
The words slipped through my lips without thought.

I hadn’t done anything wrong. We were just caught in that awkward, familiar dance of two people approaching a door from opposite directions, both stepping forward, both stepping back, trying to decide who should go first.

And still, I apologized.

As if I were sorry for the timing.
Sorry for the coincidence.
Sorry for the simple fact that our paths crossed at the same moment.

Those two words slip through my lips far more often than they should. And I don’t think that’s accidental. Especially for women, apology has become a kind of social lubricant, a way of managing discomfort, smoothing edges, making ourselves smaller, less disruptive, less dangerous.

“I’m sorry” becomes shorthand for:
I don’t want to inconvenience you.
I don’t want to take up too much space.
I don’t want to make this harder than it already is.

But what if, in that moment at the door, I had just laughed?

That would have been truer.
More human.
More honest.

There was nothing to apologize for. Only a shared, slightly clumsy moment of being alive at the same time and place.

I’m noticing how often “sorry” appears in moments that don’t call for remorse. How reflexively it steps in when what I’m actually feeling is uncertainty, a pause, or the simple act of existing alongside someone else.

Today’s tending isn’t about banishing apology altogether. There are times when it matters. Times when it heals.

But today, I’m practicing discernment.

Noticing when an apology is sincere and when it’s simply a habit of self-erasure playing dress-up as politeness.

Maybe next time, I’ll laugh instead.

This is the tending.

Daily Oracle Card

THE CHILD WITHIN reminds me that I do not need to be so hard on myself.

I do not need to heal according to any specific schedule, nor live a life void of mistakes.

I am allowed to learn slowly.
I am allowed to be tender with my own becoming.

This oracle asks me to remember the child within and to meet myself with compassion and patience, especially in moments when I would otherwise shrink, apologize, or disappear.

Always,
Your Trusted Friend 🌹